Welcome to the April edition of the Mobius monthly newsletter where we recommend what to read, watch and listen to in the field of transformational leadership and organizational change. Additionally, we hope to draw your attention to our October Annual Gathering of the Next Practice Institute as places are fast selling out and we look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible this year. 

IDEAS WORTH SHARING

Creating Conscious Tribes

An organization that operates as a Conscious Tribe is one that has established and fostered a culture of belonging – irresistible to employees, partners and clients alike.

In this podcast Mobius Friend Michael Trugman interviews Mobius Coach, senior psychologist and NPI Faculty at this year’s Annual Gathering, Nadjeschda Taranczewski. While the entire episode is a wonderful listen – touching on the ancestral beliefs we carry; the power of voice dialogue work and also embodiment; Nadja’s work with one of her key mentor’s Peter Koenig* – the final thirty minutes provide a great introduction to Nadja’s learning tack at this year’s Gathering which will explore how to turn organizations into flourishing collectives in which people do inner work, see the bigger picture, invest in deep relationships and practice conscious rituals.  The post-COVID zeitgeist has only heightened the urgent call for organizational cultures of inclusion, belonging and psychological safety, where employee engagement and retention underpin business performance. We recommend this podcast to everyone, and especially those hoping to join us at this year’s Annual Gathering. Spaces remain for Nadja’s Conscious Tribes track where participants will work with an innovative assessment for collectives, taken from her forthcoming book The Conscious Tribe Playbook and explore eight essential focus areas to create a powerful roadmap for facilitating sustainable transformation in any organizational context. 

Also, we are honored to host Peter Koenig as a keynote presenter at the October conference. Listen to Nadja's podcast here. For more information or to register for Nadja’s track at the October Gathering, more information below in Featured Events.  

The Heroic Journey: A Master Architecture to Foster Transformation

What is the value of intensive offsites for executive development? In last month’s newsletter, we shared an article in HBR highlighting seven research-backed findings for highly effective leadership programs – all of which inform our work at Mobius: 1. Focus on whole-person growth 2. Provide opportunities for self-reflection and meaning making

3. Offer targeted programs to support leaders with acute or chronic stress 4. Acknowledge and address psychological barriers to growth 5. Ensure short-term growth leads to sustained, long-term impact 6. Embrace online learning and 7. Don’t underestimate short, intensive programs. 

In this interview with Mobius Chief Thought Leader Erica Ariel Fox published six years ago, she prophetically set out some of the invisible dynamics at work in leadership offsites – how these immersive weeks can take on the transformational developmental arc of the hero’s journey.  According to the authors of last month’s HBR piece, “One of the most interesting findings in our studies was that shorter programs often yielded surprisingly large improvements. In some cases, we found that a two- or four-day intensive had the same or even greater impact than an equivalent four-week program.” – Erica’s thought leadership helps explain why this is so.

The Art of Evolutionary Facilitation 

This recent episode of the Coaches Rising podcast features a conversation between our co-founder and CEO Amy Elizabeth Fox and Joel Monk, where they discuss the art of evolutionary facilitation and explore Mobius' pioneering role in taking a trauma-informed approach to leadership development, coaching and organizational flourishing. Amy discusses the critical steps organizations need to take to create belonging, and psychological safety and to inspire a hopeful Future. She also covers the importance of finding ethical spiritual teachers and the hallmarks and practices of evolutionary coaches and facilitators. 

We highly recommend this episode to coaches, facilitators, and change leaders everywhere. Amy explains that unprocessed pain, often from generations back, shows up in the “protective strategies” so alive and debilitating inside teams and organizations. To create high-performing, innovation-capable cultures she offers, “... if you do not know how to help people to restore their embodiment, and their basic sense of safety, and their ability to build authentic intimacy, then as a practitioner, you miss the golden key. To accomplish this requires very deep restorative repair work, and it demands precise, attuned relational medicine.”  This principle lies at the heart of why we come together as a community each year for the Annual Gathering for a week of learning, friendship, celebration, and deep practice. In the Featured Events section, below, we highlight opportunities to develop ourselves, together, as practitioners who belong (or who seek to belong) to a wider community. To listen and share this podcast, follow the link here.  

FEATURED INSPIRATION

To like and share this featured inspiration on LinkedIn, click on the image. 

FEATURED BOOKS

From Malthus To Mars

Bestselling authors, Mobius Friend Nicolai Chen Nielsen and Lars Tvede bring a unique insight into the driving forces behind the world’s technological development as well as a number of concrete forecasts for the world to come. With an emphasis on not only the trends, but the mindsets and key shifts organizations need to embrace, the authors offer a free future-ready assessment and the book’s first chapter, on their website.

Meet The Threshold

This month we also celebrate the new publication from Mobius Friend, leadership expert Nick Chatrath. Offering a revolutionary framework for how leaders in all kinds of organizations can adapt to the new age of AI technology by leaning into the qualities and skills that make us uniquely human, Nick’s book offers anecdotes, research, and a practical toolkit. Adaptive, effective organizations must cultivate stillness, nurture independent thinking, find rhythms of rest and performance, and raise leadership consciousness. 

FEATURED EVENTS 

The Annual Gathering of the Next Practice Institute, October 15-20, 2023

First and foremost, we draw your attention to the opportunity to join us at this year’s Annual Gathering of the Next Practice Institute outside Boston. As spaces are limited and fast filling, we encourage everyone who hopes to join us this year to register soon. For those considering joining us for the first time, we are delighted to share highlights from the welcoming address of last year's event, delivered by Mobius Co-founder and CEO Amy Elizabeth Fox - watch the short video here. 

The Art of Facilitating Transformational Fields

In-person at Findhorn, Scotland

September 19 - 22, 2023 

In this highly experiential program, Mobius Transformational Faculty member Robin Alfred will lead a collective inquiry into how to facilitate groups with less effort and greater emergence. Participants will practice individual and collective presence; how to synchronize a group; building group coherence; and the art of facilitating the field which underpins the individual and the system. To register and watch a short explanatory video, click here. We are also delighted to share this preview of the forthcoming Mobius Strip, where Robin explores transformational fields in more depth.

Energetic Coaching Workshop, July 19-21 in Utah

In-person three-day workshop July 19 - 21, 2023 in Utah with Mobius Senior Expert Bob Anderson and his former teacher from the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, Donna Evans. (Anyone who has studied with Mobius Teacher Lynda Caesara will have been introduced to the importance of Brennan’s healing work.)  This workshop is highly experiential and will explore the application of energetic and bioenergetic healing practice to your coaching, consulting, and leadership development practice. For more information and to register, click here.

David Whyte's Three Sunday Series in May (Online)

Associate Fellow at Mobius and internationally renowned poet, David Whyte’s next Sunday series starts May 14.  Live and recorded, this is a wonderful opportunity to study with a gifted poet-teacher (or to give the series to a client or friend). In these sessions you will look “at the way poetry and the poetic tradition can uncover the essential experience you first learned so intimately when you first apprenticed to the miracle power of the right word at the right time; said in the right way. We will look at the way poetry can sustain the original visions, discoveries and transfigurative experiences of childhood into a mature adult life. We will explore poetry as the art of creating language against which we have no defenses; as a practice in which we overhear ourselves reading or saying the truth at last. We will look at the way almost all cultures have seen poetry as a break for freedom from the daily imprisonment of an abstracted and distracted life.”   

FEATURED ARTIST

Celebrating the Life of Harry Belafonte

March 1, 1927 - April 25, 2023

We join all the world in mourning the passing of the singer-songwriter-activist Harry Belafonte, a bright light in the landscape of culture and civil rights for decades.  Belafonte once said of his purpose in life, “Any song of oppressed people, I made it my business to sing it. I sang the song of the Irish in Ireland. I sang the song of the Jew in Tel Aviv. I sang the song of the Native American,” he said. “People who lived in those foreign places reached for me.”  His dedication to creating a more equitable, just, peaceful and compassionate world will have an endless legacy.  We honor him with all our hearts and celebrate this profound, momentous and barrier shattering life. Enjoy this enchanting video of one of his most renowned songs, here.

Building a better brain through music, dance and poetry

This month’s artistic spotlight promotes the power of music, dance, and poetry – artforms some consider far away from organizational transformation. At Mobius we are passionate about beauty, and all devotional and expressive arts as integral dimensions of our programs and vital catalysts to developmental work. We share this short podcast from NPR on how art changes our brain structure, primes us for lifelong learning and neuroplasticity, and the need to promote art everywhere. Listen to this 4-minute news story or read the transcript here. 

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